Sleep, Baby, Sleep
by DaughteroftheRedKing
Summary: One-shot. Tiz had never really seen himself as a light sleeper. But Ringabel said he was, so who was he to argue? (Based in Chapter 2 of the game) (No longer canon after Chapter 3) (Rated K because mostly just fluff)


**A/N: Hello, my lovely little readers! This is my first Bravely Default fanfic, and I am happy to add to the rather small archives (and if I'm correct, this is the exact 50th story for this area, which is pretty cool).**

**Anyway, this takes place during Chapter 2 when they are in the Florem area, based on a little skit where they note Tiz doesn't sleep well. I immediately wrote about it. Of course, I then played Chapter 3 and found this was no longer even a proper headcanon, but I liked the idea enough to keep it and post it anyway. I hope you enjoy! (even if it isn't completely accurate...)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bravely Default. But I am excited about the sequel.**

**Note: Reupload (even if not on a Sunday) because of spelling mistakes that annoyed me.**

* * *

Tiz had never really seen himself as a light sleeper. When he was younger, he would frequently fall asleep while looking after the sheep in the fields, and it would take his brother, Til, ages to wake him up again. He preferred the unknown of his dreams, of how he could go on amazing adventures to far off lands and fight amazing battles; and, for a boy who had spent his whole like herding sheep, this was one of his most common daydreams.

After the destruction of Norende, he found himself within a bed at an inn in a village nearby, and an unknown man saying he'd been asleep for a week and everyone in his village was dead. The last few moments before he lost consciousness replayed back to him, of how he had been holding his brother's hand seconds before he blacked out, of how he had let it slip through his grasp.

It was his fault.

Owen had told him not to panic, and that he needed time to grieve. But suddenly just sitting around lazing in a field or sleeping in a bed weren't enough. Agnès had provided him with the opportunity to get out and about, to go on an adventure he had only dreamed of, and he found himself busying his hands and mind with fighting and camping and cooking and all the other skills he had slowly picked up while he lived at home.

And then the problem got worse, and he was off fighting people with the weirdo Ringabel and bad-good person Edea and they were trying their best to help everybody but somewhere in the back of his mind, a traitorous part of him whispered, _'But you didn't help them.'_

For a while, he was afraid of getting close to them. Afraid of trusting them. But they could fight and look after themselves, even when they were sometimes ambushed. Someone would heal them - Ringabel to begin with, but eventually he and Edea shared the job between them - and he and Agnès would focus on defeating them all before any of them could get seriously hurt. And as they all gained more experience - him and Agnès just of the world, considering even with their combined knowledge they knew less than Ringabel, and he had no memory - they found the fights ended faster and it was easier to avoid battles in the first place.

But no matter how long they travelled, Tiz found himself unable to sleep for a while each night, just staring at the faces of his companions and listening to their steady breathing. It was that which lulled him to sleep, and sometimes the warmth of their bodies if they were outside and it was cold and they all decided to stay together to keep warm. Feeling them beside him, alive and well, and knowing that they were safe, allowed his mind to drift into restless slumber.

On the few nights he couldn't sleep at all, he would sometimes sift through the pages of Ringabel's journal. The silver-haired man had woken a couple of times to find Tiz like this, leaning with his back against a tree or a wall, or just lying on the ground depending on where they were. The first time, he'd been a bit annoyed that the assumedly-younger boy had taken his stuff without permission, and had walked over to him with annoyance clear on his face.

"I may not be the most polite man in the world, but even I know it's rude to take other people's things without permission," he said.

Tiz had just looked up at him blankly for a minute, mind still lost in the pages, before what Ringabel had said finally occured to him. He pushed himself up and held the book up for him apologetically. "Sorry. I couldn't sleep, and I was bored, so I figured you wouldn't mind if I read some of the journal," he explained.

Ringabel had eyed him, then sighed. He may have a fetish for women, but there was an innocence around Tiz that meant he couldn't bring himself to be angry for too long. After all, he had declared that the journal was free for any of them to read whenever they wanted, and he supposed that included at night when his apparently insomniac friend was unable to sleep.

"Oh, never mind. I don't mind you reading it. Just at least ask me for permission first - when I'm awake," he added at the end, in case the other boy didn't understand he didn't want to be woken in the middle of the night.

"Are you sure?"

"Certainly. I practically know the pages off by heart, and it comes to no harm with you after all."

"Thanks Ringabel. I promise to look after it."

Ringabel was usually the only one to wake up during the night and find Tiz awake at times. Plagued by dark dreams and nightmares, memories which he couldn't quite grasp at, he would usually wake in a cold sweat and somehow be assured to see the younger boy leafing through the pages, eyes fixed on the words. He wasn't a fast reader, but he got immersed by the words, trying to puzzle through what they meant like the rest of them.

"You could always write you're own diary, you know," Ringabel suggested one night when they were both awake and the girls still slept soundly - Edea sprawled and taking most of the blankets and Agnès curled up like a little cat. Tiz looked at him like he was mad.

"Why would I do that?"

"Well, I find writing notes and journal entries helps calm my mind. Centres me, if you will. When I get the chance I write, in case I ever find myself without my memory again. It's therapeutic, in a way."

Tiz looked down at the book in his hands. "I dunno, I don't think I'd be very good at writing a diary. I'd probably take hours and forget what I was going to write."

"It doesn't have to be very much. Simply writings a sentence or two about your thoughts or fears might help. And it would help alleviate the boredom of those nights when you find yourself awake."

Tiz had nodded, said maybe he'd try it, then dropped the subject. When they got to the next town, Ringabel had gone off course a moment - much to Edea's annoyance - and purchased a plain black book and a pen. Without a word, he had handed the articles over to Tiz, who had accepted them with a small nod and slipped them into the pack.

This of course raised a lot of questions from the two girls, and eventually the boys admitted to Tiz's frequent all-nighters and bad sleeping habits. He was a light sleeper, Ringabel explained, to which Edea had laughed and said he was basically a neurotic sleeper. Tiz and Agnès had looked confused until finally Edea took pity and explained it meant he had a lot of anxiety or insecurity and so made up for it by various defense mechanisms. That still mostly confused them, but from what Tiz could gather Edea meant he was scared so he didn't sleep. At which point he said no, he wasn't, he was just a light sleeper like Ringabel had said.

Edea was probably right.

He had never thought of himself as a light sleeper, even after saying he was. He wasn't naive enough to think that it was natural he had gone from being able to sleep through a storm to waking at even the slightest movement or being unable to sleep at all. To begin with he'd thought it was because he slept for a week - who wanted to sleep again after so much time asleep? - but eventually he realised it wasn't normal.

He thought maybe Ringabel had realised, and that was why he hadn't told the girls and had said he was just a light sleeper. Ringabel already knew what had happened to him because of the journal, so it stood to reason that he understood what was going on with him and decided to help Tiz as best he could.

So Tiz decided to try the diary. Before bed each night, he would pull out the book and slowly write a couple of sentences about their day. Sometimes he would fall asleep, sometimes he would be awake the entire night, slowly jotting down the events of the day or week. Sometimes he would write down information about battles or the people they had met.

As often happened, he would fall asleep with the book underneath his head, pages open and half filled with sentences of random thoughts. On one such night, Ringabel found himself awake after another vivid nightmare that he couldn't remember, but his common companion through the long nights asleep.

It was one of the few times Ringabel had found him like this. Usually Ringabel's sudden awakening would startle Tiz awake too, but tonight he slept through it. The older man watched him for a while, then decided to chance it and wriggled the diary gently from beneath his head. He waited a moment, but the youth did not stir, and so he leafed through the diary, eyes scanning the words.

It was simple, as he would have expected from someone like Tiz. He didn't quite have the same eye for detail as Ringabel, so he just wrote what he saw and missed the undertones of what people said. Then something caught his eye, and he focused on it, stilling as he read through it.

_'I keep having nightmares._

_I have since Norende, obviously, but they keep getting worse sometimes. Maybe something bad is going to happen. I really hope not; I couldn't stand it happening again._

_Edea keeps teasing me about being newrotick, and it annoys me but she's right. I can't help it though, I'm just so scared._

_When I woke up in Caldisla, I forgot what had happened. I was just really confused. My only thought was that I had to get home before Dad told me off for slacking again._

_And then Owen told me that actually, they were all dead. And it really hit me hard. I was still really confused, unsure where I was or how I got there or how it happened, and then I got told that everyone I knew and loved was gone._

_I think that fear just remained, somehow. I'm scared that, when I wake up, everyone will be dead. That I'll be alone again, and it'll be my fault. It keeps me up a lot at night, but Ringabel's really helped to cope with it. Talking with him makes it easier to sleep. Knowing that someone else is-'_

"It's rude to take other people's stuff without permission."

The voice startled Ringabel, and he looked up, seeing Tiz watching him through half-closed eyes. Far from looking angry, he almost looked worried, and Ringabel relaxed.

"My apologies. I grew curious," he replied, closing the diary and passing it back so Tiz wouldn't see what he had been reading. Tiz took it, turning over and slipping it back into the pack.

"I guess that makes us even," he agreed.

"Indeed. Anyhow, I think I shall return to sleep. I can hardly attract women looking like a zombie," Ringabel said with a smirk, lying down under the covers again. Tiz rolled his eyes and did the same, his breathing quickly evening out. Ringabel knew he was just pretending, knew it was impossible for Tiz to sleep that quickly, but he played along and did the same.

Somehow, it empowered him, knowing that the younger boy trusted him so much.

* * *

**A/N: *sigh* I guess I'm a RingaTiz fan? I honestly quite like Agnés/Tiz, but I'm slowly being tainted by tumblr. **

**Everything must be yaoi!**

**Review?**


End file.
